Celebrate International Women's Day with the World's Most Influential Latina Leaders

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Hilda Solis

The daughter of immigrants from Nicaragua and Mexico and the first in her family to go to college despite a counselor’s assertion that she wasn’t “college material,” Solis became a California state legislator and later congresswoman who fought against domestic violence, and for education, labor and health care issues. As President Obama’s Secretary of Labor, she is the first Hispanic woman to serve in the cabinet.